Go For It

Humans do not like rejection. The fear of rejection holds many people from reaching their goal(s). It hurts to be rejected whether it’s love, job seeking, or any other endeavor. We let our minds tell us ahead of an event, “Why try, he/she will say no.” So we don’t connect with another person whom we’d like to know better because “we know” they will reject us.” When I was a non tenured, first year faculty member at the university I went to a work shop that was going to teach us how to get published. Publish or perish was the mantra so I made sure I went. I took one important piece of advice from the day long workshop and it stayed with me throughout my career. The speaker said (I’m paraphrasing), “You’re all going to get rejected over and over again. Get over it. Allow yourselves to be angry for one day. Then read the criticisms and go back to work on the paper you submitted that was rejected and submit it again. Don’t let any rejected paper stay on your desk longer than 48 hours. That advice worked for me. One of my favorite stories is how one of my papers was rejected by five different publishers. I kept working at it and the sixth publisher accepted it. The paper then was picked up by national media. So the lesson from all of this is, don’t let the fear of rejection stop you from trying. Is there someone you want to meet but fear rejection, go for it. Is there a job you want to apply for but fear rejection, go for it. Don’t fear Going For It. Fear not going for it.